Tiles are an extremely popular flooring and walling material. Most varieties are very durable and long lasting. However, you would do best to avoid spilling the following on your tile floors.
Tiles are probably the most commonly used flooring and walling material in the world. It is not so without reason. In the tile market today, there are so many varieties of tiles available that you may actually get confused when it is time to buy some tiles. Yes, the options and the varieties of tiles are quite literally huge. However, no matter which tiles you choose, keeping them clean and in proper condition is of vital importance if you do not want to have to redo the entire thing of installing the tiles. You must take proper care of your tiles if you want to have your house looking the best that it possibly can. As mentioned before, if you fail to do this, your entire tiling installation may become dirty and there may be need for replacement or reinstallation.
The thing that has to be mentioned here is that, even though tiles come at a variety of price points, the process of actually installing the tiles is not so cheap nor easy. In most cases, it is not the easiest of DIY jobs and you will most likely have to get a professional to do it for you. This is both exhausting, time consuming and most importantly, expensive. So make sure that you take proper care of your tiles so that you do not face the aforementioned situations.
In this article, we will take a look at some stuff that you must make sure not to drop on your tile floors. These are things that have the potential to significantly damage your tiles and it is best for all involved to just not drop these things onto your tile floors.
Heavy Objects
This is an obvious one. While some tiles are definitely very sturdy and strong, it is not at all a wise decision to test out the strength of the tiles by dropping a heavy object on it. If you want to make sure that your tiles do not get chipped or damaged in any way, you should at all costs avoid dropping heavy objects on your tiles.
Most tiles that are commercially available have to meet certain strength standards. This test is known as the ASTM C648 Breaking Strength test. When tiles undergo this test, the tiles are run through a machine that will exert loads on it in order to test its strength. The tile must not break under 250 pounds of pressure and only then will it meet the industry standards.
Most of the tiles that are available in the market today do meet these standards while there are also a lot of tiles which far exceeds that minimum requirement. In fact, there are tiles that have an incredible breaking point of about 400 pounds per square inch.
The thing that you need to know after becoming privy to all of the information above is that it is extremely expensive to repair a cracked tile. In fact, in most cases, the entire part of the floor where the tile got cracked, will have to be replaced. It is difficult to replace just one tile and therefore, if you are faced with the problem of a chipped or cracked tile, then in order to repair it, you will need to spend quite a bit of money, time and effort behind it.
Liquids
Who likes cleaning up or just cleaning in general especially when it is something that is as difficult as cleaning up liquid that is greasy. Not only is it a tiresome and time consuming process, it will also lead to shortening of the life span of the tiles. This is because the more times you drop some liquid that is greasy, you will have to use a product in order to get rid of the grease. While there are many cleaning products out there that are safe, it is important to remember that these cleaning products contain chemicals that can potentially be damaging to the look and also the feel of the tiles that it is used on. The more times the cleaning product is used on the tiles, the shorter its lifespan will be and hence you would be better off just in general with dropping those greasy liquids a little less on your precious and expensive tiles.
Food
This one is also pretty self explanatory when it comes to keeping your tiles clean. Dropping food on any surface is not the best of ideas and it is especially not a great idea when it comes to tile surfaces as well. On top of having to clean up the inevitable mess that dropped food creates, there is also the matter of there being many ingredients within the foods themselves that really do have the potential to damage your tile floors. So do not waste food and also don’t ruin your precious tiles. That should be the takeaway here.
Vinegar
Vinegar has the very real potential of causing damage to your grout. Note that if your grout is sealed, then you are safe. Unfortunately, however, vinegar can most definitely penetrate grout that is unsealed and it does so by getting into the air spaces that are within the material. Once it has gotten into those spaces, vinegar has the ability to corrode the grout as time goes by.
Alcohol
The main issue with dropping alcohol on tiles is not that they cannot be cleaned. It is rather due to the fact that the stains that develop from an alcohol spillage dry up very quickly. So, if it is not cleaned immediately, then it will be a rather annoying nuisance to get rid of later on. Therefore, just to avoid the entire thing, don’t drop alcohol on your tile flooring.